Turning a fresh Page on the future of Scottish ballet By Jackie McGlone for Scotland on Sunday

ASHLEY Page has just given his dancers a well-aimed kick up the arabesques. "I’m not getting at you," he tells them quietly, "I just want to find out what’s happened. The last time you danced this piece you were all so good you could almost have gone on stage with it the following day. Now you’ve lost it. Do you agree?"

The self-confessed perfectionist ("I’m an old fusspot!") and new artistic director of Scottish Ballet is putting his dancers through their paces in his spikily sexy 1998 work, Cheating, Lying, Stealing, one of four pieces with which the 45-year-old will launch the company’s autumn season at Edinburgh’s Festival Theatre in September.

A fascinating article, giving a clear view for the first time of Page's vision for the Company. The basic mix of raising ballet standards and bringing in work by Sue Davies and others seems to be taking the Company in the direction of a company like Opera Ballet de Lyons.

An indication of the degree of change is the fact that the Scottish Ballet website is currently a single page saying, "Coming soon: Scottish Ballet's new look, new repertoire, new website."

Apart from the choice of choreographers, the introduction of dancers like Pattie Hines from Rambert and the Alston Company will add to the quality of the performances. Another strong addition is Eve Mutso from Estonian National Ballet where she shone in the modern dance role of "Coppelia" in Bigonzetti's fine version of the ballet.

Page's mix looks as though it could well please the more forward looking critics and audiences who enjoy the current Arts scene. The question remains - can they take ballet audiences in Scotland along with them? You need a lot of bums on seats to support 37 dancers - the UK's fourth largest company.

I'm looking forward to seeing them perform and seeing a selection of the Page back catalogue. CriticalDance wishes everyone involved all the luck in the world and very best wishes for this exciting project.

Come August, almost half of Scottish Ballet's 37 dancers will be new recruits, a former Kirov ballerina among the many incomers replacing those who left, or who were required to go. In September, the company will make its first public showing since Ashley Page took over as artistic director and began to shape Scottish Ballet's future profile and programming.

Now it's time for Page to prove his pointe The new head of the Scottish Ballet joined in stormy circumstances, then went on to cause more controversy by clearing out half the company. Now he’s ready to send in his troupes. By Kelly Apter for The Times

A new broom sweeps clean, so the old saying goes. But since taking over the reins at Scottish Ballet last September, Ashley Page has functioned more like a Dyson vacuum cleaner, sucking up the dirt that other artistic directors might have left behind. Nine months after his arrival, the dance company has been reborn, although it will be September before the public finally sees the fruits of his labour. Announcing their autumn/winter programme last week, the Scottish Ballet chiefs were like proud grandparents, applying adjectives such as “exciting” and “positive” to their company’s future.

Nut cracker When he took over Scottish Ballet, Ashley Page found a company in turmoil. He fired, hired and instituted a punishing new training regime and now, he tells Ellie Carr in The Sunday Herald, his dancers are preparing to perform in public

ASHLEY Page, the new boss of Scottish Ballet, is bounding around the company's Glasgow studios leading rehearsals for his new version of The Nutcracker. Dressed in scuffed green Doc Marten boots and baggy sweats, the 45-year-old ex-Royal Ballet principal is a terpsichorean Tigger, springing in and out of the action as he guides Tatiana Loginova, his beguiling new Kirov-schooled ballerina, through her elaborate paces.

Why the spring in his step? You might well ask. The award-winning choreo grapher has taken on the biggest job in Scottish dance and he will need every inch of his broad dancer's shoulders to carry the company's past troubles. After all, it's no secret that Scotland's national dance company has limped from crisis to crisis since founder Peter Darrell's death in 1987, with events of the past two years almost nobbling it for good.

Now to learn all the new moves Scottish ballet is finally on track for a recovery of artistic standards and ambitions. MARY BRENNAN reports for The Herald

When Ashley Page announced his opening programme for Scottish Ballet, he talked in terms of choreographers and works that had been important, even influential, in determining his own creative voice. So when the company returns to performing, later this month, Page's Cheating, Lying, Stealing will be part of a quadruple bill that also features works by Richard Alston, Siobhan Davies, and Stephen Petronio.

Ballet leaps back onto centre stage Two years after it was the subject of a government inquiry, Scottish Ballet is reborn. By Senay Boztas for The sunday Times:

The ensemble sweating it out in the rehearsal room is barely recognisable as the troubled company whose very survival was called into question not so long ago. But then, in essence, this is not the same Scottish Ballet.

Gone is the disaffection which erupted back in 2001 after the company sparked a parliamentary inquiry when it announced a new “modern” direction and effectively ousted its then artistic director, Robert North. In its place is a vibrant, forward-thinking company, under the direction of Ashley Page.

Page prepares to turn over a new leaf in Scottish Ballet saga By SARAH JONES for Scotland on Sunday

"NO COMPANY," wrote chairman Ken Marchant, tentatively raising his head above the parapet in a recent posting to the Friends of Scottish Ballet, "could ask for a more loyal and supportive Friends’ membership than that enjoyed by Scottish Ballet."

You can almost hear him girding his loins, for it’s not two years since the Friends rallied in outright opposition to the board of directors’ unexpected announcement that it planned to ditch the traditional classical repertoire and "go modern". Not a popular choice.

A CONTROVERSIAL plan for Scottish Ballet to take over Glasgow’s Tramway arts centre was announced to the building’s staff two weeks ago - despite city council assurances that it would not even be debated until a request for lottery funding had been approved.

Scottish Ballet has attracted widespread condemnation from the visual arts world after revealing it is applying for lottery cash to convert Tramway 2 - an internationally respected exhibition space which launched the careers of artists such as Roderick Buchanan and Christine Borland - into rehearsal space.

A SIZEABLE question mark was yesterday placed over Scottish Ballet's radical proposal to move into the Tramway visual arts space in Glasgow when the Scottish Arts Council refused to guarantee funding for the plan.

The Herald revealed yesterday how the ballet company intends to leave its dilapidated base at West Princes Street and take over the venue on the south side of the city.

Clearing up inherited mess is an integral part of any takeover, whether you’re in government, business or even rented accommodation. What counts is how quickly you turn things around.

When Ashley Page took over the reins at Scottish Ballet in September 2002, things - as the Blair campaign professed ad nauseam - could only get better. A year later, the company is almost unrecognisable, and Page may well go down in the annals of dance history as the man who saved Scottish Ballet.

As jobs go, it had limited appeal: artistic director of a company in the midst of a controversial change of direction, chronically under-funded and populated by dancers who - not to put too fine a point on it - weren’t very good. Not only that, the previous director, Robert North, had been unceremoniously shown the door after three years for failing to cut the mustard.

A New Laird of the dance makes his point By Miranda Fettes for The Evening News

IT is a bitter, wintry day as I go to meet Ashley Page, the new artistic director of Scottish Ballet, at Edinburgh’s Festival Theatre. One moment, the volatility of the elements plunges the sky into darkness, punctuated by dense clouds and relentless rain. The next, it is clear, dry and bright, as though some omni-potent director is engineering scene changes to mimic one of Page’s characteristically spiky, asymmetrical choreographies.

"It never ceases to amaze me that one second it can be dark and wet and the next it can be bright and clear," says the 47-year-old, revealing his initial impressions of Scotland. "I quite like the fact that it can change just like that - it’s very dramatic."

Anger as council suspends arts chief By PHIL MILLER and LUCY BANNERMAN

THE visual arts programmer of the Tramway arts venue in Glasgow has been suspended amid the snowballing row over the venue's proposed takeover by Scottish Ballet, it emerged yesterday. Alexia Holt, who is in charge of the visual art shows at the site, was suspended by Glasgow City Council, which runs the Tramway, on Tuesday.

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